Have you tried allowing background processing of Vulkan shaders?

Every single time I launch Skyrim it wants to compile shaders.
First time I let it run its course, it took 30 minutes.
Second time I thought it should be faster. Nope, 30 minutes.
Now I just skip it.
Then I have to click “no” on a popup window that says “Steam is not responding, want to kill it?” 5-6 times.
Then it launches normally.

Linux verified, Gold rating on ProtonDB btw 👍

(still no clue what shaders are or why they need to be compiled at launch)

What does this processing even mean? What’s it doing before the game launches?